Welcome to the class blog of Ben Villarreal's Freshman English 12 Course: Visual and Verbal Literacies! Here you'll find the thoughts, ideas, and burgeoning written work from our class about the multiple literacies we experience.

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06 April 2012

War Never Changes

War. War never changes.

~ Fallout 3

Whether it's the horrors of the Jewish Holocaust, or people fighting against a dictators regime in Iran. Our own hate towards one another causes all this death, and that hate is what breeds war, and I fear that it will never change...

Persepolis
is
a movie based off of Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical comic which details her
family and personal life in the city of Tehran Iran during the time of the
Islamic Revolution, which sparked the war between Iraq and Iran. It starts out with a grownup Marjane who is
sitting at the airport remembering her past experiences. We see that during the beginning of the
revolution Marjane was a rebel even as a child, always going against the tide. Listening
to heavy metal music and wearing awesome clothes are things that are frowned
upon in her traditional society. We
witness the horrors of the revolution firsthand when we see her uncle Anouche get
imprisoned and eventually killed for his political views. Fearing that her outspoken, rebellious nature
will give the regime cause to harm her, Marjane’s parents decide to send her
out of the country to live in Austria where she can be safe. Marjane soon realizes how different it is at
her new home, and begins to explore the freedom she now possesses. Marjane is now a young woman who is making
friends and finding love, time and time again, but with freedom comes responsibility. Marjane soon realizes that this is not her
home, and begs her parents to let her come back to Tehran. The war is all but over and people are
forgetting why they fought in the first place, but there are few who still
remember, few who still have the will to resist. She leaves Tehran again always unsure about
where her home is. Marjane takes her
grandma to the Caspian Sea, and realizes that home isn’t an actual place, its
family.

This movie originated
as a comic, and holds a similar form of historical, cultural, and autobiographical
content to that of the comic Maus: A Survivors
Tale. Both these comics are true stories
that open a window into the lives of the creator and his or her family. More movies like this one would help prove to
the people who don’t read comics that there are more than just superhero comics
out there. Unfortunately, people watch
more movies than read books, but the comic medium can use this to flip the
tables on the movie industry by having it promote comics.